Disdain Versus Change

Last week in this space I applauded the fact that a few important shards of reality broke through the predictable pageantry of the Democratic National Convention. This week, it is hard not to boo the truly fantastical specter of the RNC, where reality was banished from the hall.

Like others, I will critique the non-reality of it all (see Bob Herbert, e.g.), but I also think there is a critical, forward looking lesson from the past two weeks about how the fight is evolving, and what Democrats need to do to win this election and get America back on track.

It's their disdain versus our hope.

The whole frame of the RNC--running against the Washington establishment--was ludicrous, of course, with the ticket headed by a 26-year senator whose agenda is almost perfectly in sync with that of the past eight years. I tried to listen to all the big speeches, but to hear Romney argue that it's the liberals who have screwed everything up, or Palin, charismatic as she may be, gleefully mock Obama, or the chant of "drill, baby, drill" from the crowd, or McCain wax substance-free, ad nauseam, proved to be too much for me.

One of the best responses came from Obama himself.

"You wouldn't know that this is such a critical election by watching the convention last night. I know we had our week and so, you know, the Republicans deserve theirs. But it's been amazing to me to watch. Over the last two nights, if you sit there and you watch it, you're hearing a lot about John McCain - and he's got a compelling biography as a POW. You're hearing an awful lot about me, most of which is not true. What you're not hearing is a lot about you."

Watch the clip. He goes on to talk about what the R's managed to ignore all week: health care, alternative energy, jobs, the recession, the middle-class squeeze, strengthening unions (well, it's not like they would have come out for that one, though I did find it curious that they kept bragging on how Todd Palin is a member of the steelworkers' union--I get that they're making a play for the Reagan democrats, Hillary's white-working class vote, etc, but again, the spectacle of them courting these folks with their deeply anti-union agenda is hard to watch).

Obama's comments--"they're talking (albeit, lying) about me, not you"--were particularly notable compared to those made by McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis, who said the other day:
"This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

So these are the battle lines, and they're worth a bit of deconstruction. It's not just the old,
"we're about issues, they're about personalities." Like Obama said, it's about reaching "you," the voter, but each camp is going after a very different you.

Obama is correct, of course, in that they're not talking about your real struggles, the challenges you face. They're not talking about the part of your life wherein good government can actually make a difference. That's because they've failed to govern competently and they're bereft of ideas about what to do next.

But they are, in their coded, Rovian way, talking about "you." It's just not the "you" that can't find reliable, affordable health care, or the you whose job was offshored, or the you who would like to know the plan for reversing the eight months of consecutive job losses, or the you who's asking why we're about to bail out Fannie and Freddie.

The "you" they're going after is the one on which they successfully played the fear card in 2004. They played that card again in 2006, but you didn't pick it up, and they noticed. So now they're going after a different you.

They're stoking your disdain for "elitism"--a deeply weird tack given the status of so many of their principal players--for the media, for the Washington establishment (again, incredible). Remember the McCain adds accusing Obama of being a celebrity? It's the same thing: disdain for this unusual guy who's just too damn popular.

In fact, if you had to find one word to characterize that convention last week, "disdain" would be a fine choice. We think of negative campaigning as saying bad things about your opponent, but the negativity of conservatives in this election goes much deeper than that. It's a pernicious drive to tap into the electorate's cynicism, distrust, and disdain.

Did you see Giuliani and Palin tear into Obama for working as a community organizer? It was cast as a critique of his lack of experience, but I also heard pure disdain for helping the have-nots and powerless. (And it's been pointed out that the evangelical Palin should recognize that Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.)

What happened to the "morning in America" party of their patron saint Reagan? There's no optimism to these folks, just cynicism and disdain for the electorate: "Hey, you're a women for Hillary...well, then you'll want to support our new VP (pay no attention to their hugely disparate views);" disdain for the planet: "drill, baby, drill!;" disdain for the facts: "Obama will raise taxes on the middle class and small businesses!" (He cuts taxes much more than McCain for both groups.)

They're so busy spewing venom, they don't have time to think about the "you" that could use some seriously good government right about now. We face so many profound challenges both here and abroad, in no small part because we've been operating from their fantasy play book for so long. WMD's, Americans don't torture, Brownie's heckuva job, Mission Accomplished, the economy's fundamentals are sound, we're all whiners stuck in a mental recession...all of this nonsense keeps today's conservatives so busy assaulting reality that any actually useful initiatives have been almost totally crowded out.

But how do we make this election about the right "you," not the disdainful one who gets a negative charge out of dumping on Davis's "composite views," but the one who wants and needs a return to reality-based governing? As Drew Westin has pointed out, if this fight ends up being about our lists of good ideas versus their emotional grab, we lose.

Obviously, we need to elide our ideas with narratives that emotionally resonate, as Obama effectively did in his acceptance speech. It's helpful to point the hypocrisy so clearly on display last week at their convention, but too much of that and we just end up vying for the same negative vein they're busily tapping.

This doesn't mean they get a pass. Part of the narrative that Obama et al must continue telling stresses how damaging their ideas have been, particularly over the Bush years, and how McCain/Palin double-down on the worst of those ideas: supply-side tax cuts, endless war, no serious energy policy beyond drilling, privatize Social Security, health care reform that eschews risk pooling, the whole "you're on your own" agenda Obama castigated in his speech.

But the positive part of our agenda is equally important and it is simply this: we have will and the skill to honestly assess where we've gone wrong over the past eight years, and to make the needed changes to get America back on track.

We can look, open-eyed, at the current economy, with its contracting job market, banks failing in the wake of the housing bubble, and unprecedented levels of inequality and do something about it, something very different than what we've been doing: progressive tax changes (cuts for the those on the losing side of inequality, increases for its beneficiaries); an alternative energy plan that creates jobs while investing in independence from fossil fuels; a re-regulatory agenda to break the shampoo cycle of the macroeconomy (bubble, bust, repeat). They look at the same thing, somehow see an endorsement of Bushonomics, and push for more of the same.

It's the same with the war, where they're so busy supporting the Cheney/Bush/surge success story, that their eyes are off the ball. Did McCain even mention the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

I admit it, Mr. Davis, these are "issues." And while I know you'll be fighting to make this election not about them, we'll be relentlessly linking them to the real lives of the people you and your team are trying to collar with cynicism, disdain, and mockery.

And while it will be a close one, in the battle of hope and real, substantive change against cynical disdain, I think we'll win.

Comments

[dadw5boys]

Where were the storys of the MIDDLES CLASS GETTING FREE FOOD FROM CHARITIES at the Republican Convention ?

Where are the storys of the Middle Class being SQUEEZED FOR MAINTAINCE OF FEDERAL MANDATED PROGRAMS AND BRIDGES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[robbep]

Sorry but you and Obama still dont get it. We dont care about issues we decide our leaders based on personality and how we feel about them. How else can you explain the $9 an hour Waffle House cook who is an avid Bush/McCain supporter. This is why Obama's shift to the middle was such a bad strategy bcz these folks are never going to vote him. He goes on fox news and today he is 10 points behind among likely voters. You can spout facts to these working class white folks until your blue in the face it wont matter bcz they dont listen to facts and issues. They vote from a cultural perspective. Unfortunately, it is going to take another depression like tragedy bfr this blk of voters vote on how policies affect their lives, until then they will continue voting against their economic interest. This refusal to vote for anyone who is different from them is going to come back and haunt them in 40 years bcz they will be the minority. I am just going to put it out there but until these working class white voters hit bottom they are going to continue choosing our presidents based on culteral preferences. It wasnt until THEY were in the soup lines did they take action and run the republicans out. Sadly, it is going to take a similiar tragedy bfr they wake up.

[ResistanceisFutile]

Some of them have hit bottom. I can not tell you how many delapitated trailers I have driven by, with junked cars on the front lawn and a big old McCain/Palin sign stuck in amongst the other Junk.

Sometimes I wonder why progressives, liberals and Democrats care about these people who are are so blind to the fact that Republicans could not care less about them.

[lejman]

bravo...bob dylan said this 45 years ago in "only a pawn in their game". the poor white individual living in fear always seems to run for the cover of the white militaristic protector. and he doesn't want to be reminded that he's stupid, like barack said foolishly over the weekend. he'll just run over to willie stark (all the king's men) when willie "calls out the hicks".

the only way to fight the lina wertmuller propaganda is to confront it head on before the ugly tentacles swift boat us into another four years, which will thereafter become eight more years of sarah the flavor of the moment, if there is anything left in the turnip for the bush 1% aristocracy to squeeze out of this once great nation.

the revolution's here and you know it's right.

[IllinoisTexan43]

I had stated in a earlier peice that until this voting bloc of 50+ year old whites becomes a thing of the past, all we are going to get are administrations that look like them, no matter what. Just looking at all the faces at the RNC and seeing absolutely no diversity should send a message to all Americans. This is THEIR America and they want to keep it that way, even if will drag this nation to depth that I believe, we won't be able to come back from. What are White woman so angry about that they will cling to this sham of party at any costs. Gentlemen, your ladies have some deep issues here.

[free2think3]

You hit it right on the head rob, That's the conclusion i am coming to, They are blinded by their own need to be identified as White people first and then americans. BO being president will totally go against there cultural conditioning( eg. we might be down but at least we are white)
like that really matters anymore. Sad stuff, We all have to suffer because these people just won't wake up, look at the facts as they are.

[mezz1962]

I am wondering were they listening to Obama when he was 10 points ahead? I think the voters heard what Obama was trying to pull...Free medical for everyone including illegals. Free everything for everybody and higher taxes for eaveryone. Now after hearing McCain and McCain actually having a yes or No record not a Present record like Obama they don't trust a man who seems to have a tough time answering Yes or No

[ArmyCentrist]

I am OFFENDED by what Rick Davis said about Americans not caring about the issues...they really are banking on us being stupid.

[veteran1964]

As far as Republicans go, they do think anyone that doesn't support them are stupid. They are the party of lies and deceit and it wins. I am sickened at the way things are going now and they are using this woman to produce more SEXIST BS and not allow anyone to question her. Now, since Keith Olberman and Chris are out of the election coverage, the MSM has won their battle against anyone that is against them. I am sickened by the POWER plays of the Reps. Terrible situation we are in. The only way to win is to VOTE. So everyone needs to go out there and VOTE.

[princessofnowt]

Great article. Perfectly said: "disdain vs. change".

I think you spelled it out pretty well here, Jared.
Thanks.

[BlackbirdHighway]

They think that American voters are stupid. They are mostly correct.

Whenever John Kerry spoke, he sounded like he was defending a masters thesis. That's no way to win over voters. Republicans understand that. They speak in simple, emotional appeals: "drill, baby, drill".

All through the so-called Democratic Convention, I heard speaker after speaker heaping praise on John McCain. He's courageous, a war hero, a proud and brave American. He loves America and will do what's right for his country.

The Republicans did have anything nice to say at all about Obama. It's almost like we had two Republican Conventions.

[mezz1962]

Just about every Republican said "Obama is a great man...A man of Vision...A patriotic man...But he is just not ready to lead"

They are right

[thinker2]

great post

[loril]

I hope that some of the points you are making reach the apathetic. It is amazing, even after the battering everyday people have been taking for the past decade, how many just don't care. They are either so demoralized or so tuned out or so uninformed that they continue to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.

The zealots you see at the RNC are quite the opposite. They are very plugged into the process. These are the people who have actually benefited from the power vacuam we have had in the White House. Obviously the Cheney/Bush years have been all about removing government and clearing the path and last remaining obstacles for the big business lobbies to run things to their liking and unhindered by any regulation or oversight. Think about how many of these right wingers laud the concept of almost no government at all?

They tell the rest of us that government is always the problem and many of us who should know better fall for it. In hard times we get even more upset about paying taxes. BushCos constant mismanagement, corruption and greed actually help underscore a message they want to send...that government can never be "good".

[IDisgoodfittingjeans]

I would take that one step farther --- apathetic yes, in that they lie around w over-full bellies and fill their spare hours w prole TV. I think the rep voter constituency is gathered in w/ fear -- both god-wrought and terrorist -- and moralizing self-righteousness, which is a thinly veiled form of racism, both color and cultural.
It scares me, and it scares me to think that our country is so full of these types.
It scares me that these directives alone will put our next person into office --- we have, afterall, done it the last two elections -- and where it got a bit tight, we had the people in office ready and willing to twist the logistics to finish the job.

[Teritt]

But McCain has changed - he's now running with a CELEBRITY on the ticket! No substance except for raising debt on her tiny town, taking earmarks, flip flopping on bridges & Ted Stevens, but far better red neck credentials for her 'Simple Life'.

[mezz1962]

Obama changed as well He brought a Biden on board his Celebrity cruise line too bad Biden is more qualified to become president than Obama.

Even Biden Knows McCain would be the better president when he openly said "If John McCain asked I would be his VP" he also said of Obama "This is not a position for On the Job Training"

[cindyperry]

Folks this race is almost over. The powers that be know this. It's about the electoral college delegate count. Relax. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/. go have a look. go vote on nov. 9

[imfedup]

We cannot relax. There is much more work to be done.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Very nice article Jared, a beautifully detailed laundry list of what the republicans did wrong at their convention, unfortunately according to today’s polls the voters apparently do not agree with you.

I think McCain’s campaign manager is right, this is not going to be an election about issues but rather about personalities.

The new poll numbers are extremely depressing; I find it so incredulous that the American people are actually buying into the republican message?

Here we go again, I thought the last 2 elections were a shoe-in for the democrats, my thinking was the American people are just too smart to put a dunce in the white house, boy was I wrong.

If the republicans pull this off; the grand deception of the electorate, and manage to squeak out a victory again I fear for the future of my once great country.

Obama/Biden

[drlouise]

How come nobody is reporting the fact that most of the GOP delegates were white males? Did anyone see the sea of aging white male faces when they scanned the delegates or did we just focus on the few teary-eyed women who heard the white male message from a female? Of course McCain's and Palin's "non-reality" got cheers from that group! They were speaking to their clones. I hope that the rest of the US voters can get over their fear of intelligence and actual problem solving and vote to end the mess that Bush created.

When I hear people from other countries talk about the candidates, one of the things I hear is Obama has the face of the world and the future. We now belong to the world and the future is now, we can't pretend that the solutions of the past will solve our present problems. Obama's approach is pretty concrete to those who can listen beyond war, taxation, and more of the same.

[leftLibertarian]

My friends deserve better than a choice between the criminals Bush and Cheney's Republicans and the Democratic Party of the spineless Pelosi and Reid.

Vote third party.

[imfedup]

And waste your vote. Great idea.

[gr8abz]

Frankly I cringe when I see Obama's TV ads about HOPE. Karl Rove and his attack dogs will chew on our face if we rely on this New Age mantra. It''s the economy stupid. It's about convincing Americans that Barack is better at defending us from another terror attack than McCain. And now it's about Sarah Palin. We better figure out fast just how to make people see her for what she really is. A moose hunting inexperienced loose canon with a checkered past. No letting McCain put a stopper on the Troopergate investigation. Keep it cooking.

[allwrite]

Homo Sapiens Republicanus. n A sub-species of man characterized by disinterest in the common good, lust for power and dominion over all, disdain for views and opinions not consistent with their own, a dogged determination to subvert the application of any law or regulation considered objectionable, and a tendency to revere personal wealth above all else.

[Trajan]

This is a well written article Jared. But I do have one question. You say that He(Obama) "cuts taxes much more than McCain for both groups." I would like to know what your point of reference is. Is it a bill in congress? A news article? A statement from his economic advisor Austan Goolsbee? Or is it another blog.

If anyone can answer this please post it...and be very specific.

Trajan

"Lunatic fringe...I know you're out there" -Red Rider